Latest Incident Shows Why The Diamondbacks Are Considered The Dirtiest Team In Baseball

Former Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin was a well-known enforcer of baseball’s idiotic “unwritten rules”and things have changed very little with the team since Kirk Gibson took over in 2010. This is why many consider the Diamondbacks the dirtiest team in baseball.

The latest incident came this weekend when Diamondbacks pitcher Randall Delgado was ejected for intentionally hitting Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 95 mph fastball in the middle of the back. Delgado appears to start walking off the mound even before he is ejected not even offering a hint of an argument.

The assumption is that this was done in retaliation to Paul Goldschmidt being hit the night before with a pitch that broke a bone in his hand and ended his season.

McCutchen was livid, and rightfully so.

McCutchen stayed in the game despite being hit “square in the spine.” However, he had to leave the next game early after apparently still feeling the affects of being hit.

Even the Diamondbacks announcers agreed that the pitch that hit Goldschmidt was not intentional while the one that hit McCutchen clearly was. This means the Diamondbacks intentionally put an opposing player at risk over what was essentially a freak injury.

And this isn’t the first time for the Diamondbacks.

Earlier this season, after a Milwaukee Brewers pitcher unintentionally hit one batter and had a breaking ball sail a little too close to the head of a second batter, Diamondbacks pitcher Evan Marshall was ejected for hitting Ryan Braun.

When Marshall arrived back at the dugout, he received an emphatic fist-pump from Gibson (via Chad Moriyama).

Last year, during a game against the Dodgers, Diamondbacks pitcher Ian Kennedy hit both Yasiel Puig and pitcher Zack Greinke in the head with pitches. The latter was apparently in retaliation for Greinke hitting a Diamondbacks player in the previous inning.

As a result, nobody was surprised when McCutchen was hit this weekend in the ninth inning of a blowout, in the middle of a lost season for the Diamondbacks.

Part of the game of baseball is enforcement of the unwritten rules and players being able to police themselves. But the Diamondbacks have repeatedly shown that they will put the careers of other players at risk over the slightest of offenses.